Miller Magazine Issue: 140 August 2021

70 ARTICLE MILLER / august 2021 selling monotone flour is over. We can serve the coun- try better by selling branded and value-added products. Flour industrialists should get united and Flour and Bak- ery Products Promotion Group should be established within TİM” said Erhan Özmen and had a big hand from the audience. This reaction was interpreted as the indus- try's acute need for promotion in foreign markets. SCARY FACTS FROM DOYEN INDUSTRIALIST Stating that many countries where they, as flour ex- porters, sell products have established and continue to establish their own flour production facilities, Erhan Özmen shared the following anecdotes: A wheat producing Turkey has always supported its industrialists. However, in the current process, there is a rapid shift away from wheat planting. When we look at the average of long years in our coun- try, while the cultivation areas are shrinking, we have tried to support our farmers with prices that are above the world. Turkey's wheat prices average for long years is 320 dollars. However, later on, this practice was aban- doned due to the effect of bread on inflation. The years 2017 and 2018 have been the period when the farmer got angry to wheat production and withdrew from the field. In this period, the prices given to wheat remained below the exchange rate increase and inflation. We need to draw the farmers to the field again. A country with such a fertile and abundant cultivation area should not become a wheat importer. Wheat is indis- pensable for us. We produce many bakery products from bread to baklava, pasta, biscuits, pita and pastry. When entering the harvest period, TMO should have at least 2-3 million tons of wheat in its stock. If the price of everything goes up, the price of bread should go up, too. If this price is being kept under pressure for inflation concerns, another formula can be found for this. FLOUR EXPORTERS SEEK CONVENIENT CREDIT FROM EXIMBANK Another remarkable subject of the meeting was GUSAD President Mesut Çakmak's request for the solution of the financial problems experienced by the flour exporters. Çakmak stated that the flour ex- porters had problems in accessing Eximbank loans and wanted to pave the way for access to loans. Ex- plaining that especially small-scale exporters have financial difficulties in exports, Çakmak said, “Strong companies can easily access Eximbank loans. Small- scale companies can access Eximbank loans with letters of guarantee. If small-scale companies are supported by the Credit Guarantee Fund, the way will be cleared for us. We ask TİM President Mr. İs- mail Gülle to convey our voice to our ministers and the President," and asked that their demands be con- veyed to Ankara. Pointing out that the Iraqi market is no longer suffi- cient for flour exports, the veteran industrialist made the following warning: “One day this will not work only with Iraq. Although things seem fine for now, we do not think that this is sustainable. Our salvation lies only in opening up to overseas countries.” TİM President İsmail Gülle said that they are working to change the structure of Eximbank, which he is in the management of, as they admit that there is fallacy in the way Eximbank is working. He stated that a package has been prepared for the granting of Eximbank loans to projects and making them reach wider segments. Re- minding that 1.3-billion-dollars of flour was exported in 2020, İsmail Gülle informed that there was a 15 percent increase in the first 6 months of this year compared to the same period of the previous year. The person whose speech was eagerly awaited at the meeting was TMO General Manager Ahmet Güldal, for sure. Expressing that he was there to solve the problems mentioned at the meeting, Güldal noted that they will try to support the industry more in this period when the neg- ative effects of the pandemic and drought reign over.